Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

I can't tell you how happy I am to have the forum back up. Thanks Coke! I need to dive in deep, my pistons are on my workbench and I'm out of my depth.

My oil pressure control relay that plugged into the fuse panel died a wet, rusty death long ago. I have an oil pressure gauge, but I don't look at it as often as I probably should. But there's an idiot light already in the dash. If I jumper (in the relay panel) the idiot light to the sender that swi...

I'm sad to see this go, I still need it! Its a great resource full of helpful people, I wish the rest of the web was like that. Thank you Coke and Fatmobile. Thank you to everybody who answered questions and gave advice when I needed it.
I would happily chip in to keep it running.

Crazy theory:
It used to be a 5 speed but a 4 speed was swapped in. There is a short in the upshift indicator light. All that highway driving in 4th when it "should" be in 5th lets the upshift short run down the battery.

Check the 5 amp fuse marked "radio". It powers the whole instrument cluster. A short anywhere in the cluster will cause it to blow. Without that red light the battery won't charge.

Are you sure its not belt squeal from the alternator? That causes the same power loss until the sound stops. Does the red battery light come on with the noise? Does it happen when you drive through a puddle? Check alt hinge bolt and belt wear.

I have cheap clear tubing from the hardware store as fuel line. Got stiff after a few years. Broke it in the middle while fiddling with it, spliced the break with a piece of wider cheap clear tubing. Lasts at least as long as the fabric-covered black return line.

Two unexpected things that gave me hard starts:
1) Needed a new air filter
2) Ignition switch didn't open solenoid WHILE cranking. Put a jumper to solenoid. Replaced ignition switch.

Yes to your CV joint thought. One side spinning is the sign. Hope for that, it's cheap and easy.

Seems like this part (811 611 301) is no longer available. Is there a way to find one that will fit from another car? Is there a database somewhere for reservoir barb spacing? What do you do in this situation? We're all going to have this problem eventually.

Seems like this part is no longer available. Another 35 year old piece of plastic may not be a long-term solution, but mine failed very slowly and now I'm adding fluid too often.
Is there a way to know if a modern part for another car would fit?

I had my ignition fail in a tricky way. It would turn over fine, and once it caught it would run fine. But sometimes it wouldnt fire up, and this got worse over time. Turns out that WHILE the key was turned to START, the solenoid wasn't getting power. So run battery positive to the fuel solenoid and...

I made a replacement pin from a nail.

I can't find replacement wiper arms for my caddy. The pin that holds the spring wore all the way through, so the blade flaps around an inch from the windshield. Does anybody want to sell me one or two?

Mine has the cap from a sports water bottle with RTV smeared into the nozzle. So there is at least one other thing out there with the same thread.